


a better kiss that never lasts

by majesdane



Category: Degrassi RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-13
Updated: 2007-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-08 01:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majesdane/pseuds/majesdane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Kissing your friend is almost a guarantee that things are going to get uncomfortable, as far as Lauren is concerned.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	a better kiss that never lasts

_"Dee and I are really close friends and super comfortable with each other; it made the girl on girl kiss much easier for both of us."_  
\- Lauren Collins

 

"We have to kiss," Lauren says, dully, though it sounds like she's trying very hard not to panic.

"Yes." Deanna says, leaning back in her chair. "And this is a problem, because?"

"Problem? I never said that it was a problem." Lauren says in a strained voice.

Deanna rolls her eyes and shakes her head, as if trying to say that Lauren is freaking out for nothing. Right, because kissing Deanna was right up there on her things-to-do list. Okay, it's not so much the fact that she has to kiss another girl that's bothering her, because, hey, it's just acting. But the fact that she has to kiss _Deanna_ , well, that's more than just a little unnerving. Mostly because she's afraid it's going to make things awkward between them, having to make out and all. Kissing your friend is almost a guarantee that things are going to get uncomfortable, as far as Lauren is concerned. And so Lauren is freaking out about this, just a little.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Deanna tells her, as if reading Lauren's thoughts. "I mean, it won't be any different than when you kissed Shane."

"Except you're a girl."

"As far as I know, yes," Deanna said, punctuating this statement with another eye roll. "Look, if you're that bothered by it - "

"I'm not!" Lauren bursts in, just a little too eagerly. "I mean, um, don't you think it'll make things awkward between us?"

"Okay, first of all, _I'm_ initiating the kiss, so shouldn't I be the more worried one? And no, it won't make things awkward, not unless you let it."

Lauren bites her lip and glances back down at the script. "Well," she starts, but she's not really sure if there's anything left to say.

"We could always, you know, practice," Deanna suggests, averting her eyes quickly when Lauren looks up. "Um, I mean, well, you know, everyone will be there at rehearsals and for shooting and stuff like that, and it might make it harder for us to get into the scene. But, um, if we practice now, maybe it won't be so bad on Monday."

Lauren hesitates, if only because she's wondering if it would mean anything if she just jumped at Deanna's suggestion and agreed wholeheartedly. Not that she _wants_ to kiss Deanna, but the brunette does have a very good point, and it makes a lot of sense.

"Um, sure, okay," she says slowly, after a moment, and Deanna comes to join her on the bed, sitting down cross legged, looking all serious. Lauren looks away, because there's something in Deanna's eyes that makes her feel unsure, and she doesn't like that feeling.

"Relax," Deanna murmurs, and leans in.

Deanna's lips are soft against her own, softer than she'd expected, and for a moment she pushes into the kiss, wanting more. And then a second later she realizes what she's doing, and pulls away, heart racing.

"See? No big deal," Deanna says, and her smug expression makes Lauren kind of want to shove Deanna off the bed.

\- - - - -

"Hey Lauren, ready for some girl-on-girl action?" Adamo teases, as Lauren trudges into work on Monday, already dreading rehearsals.

Lauren rolls her eyes and ignores him, as she brushes past Shane and Audrey, who smirk and also take a moment to comment on Lauren and Deanna macking on each other. See, this was exactly why she was not looking forward to having to kiss Deanna. Maybe she could just back out of it, say that it made her too uncomfortable. But she knew how much this meant to Deanna, who was finally getting something of a character arc. She couldn't do that to Deanna, even if she did feel like she was going to throw up from all the nervousness.

Her dressing room is thankfully empty.

She drops her coat and duffel bag into one of the corners and sits down on one of the mattresses, back to the wall, face in her hands. Oh, God, she is not going to be able to go through this.

"Hey lover," Deanna says from the doorway. "Excited for rehearsal?"

"About excited as I would be to find out I had cancer. How can you be so cool about this?"

Deanna shoves her hands in her pockets. "I don't know. Whenever I do start to feel a bit weird about it, all I can think of is how this is what Alex wants, and how it means so much to her. And then I feel guilty about not wanting to do it, you know?"

"Yeah," Lauren says, studying the wall. "Kind of. I don't know, Deanna, you just get so into character sometimes. I think it's just easier for you than for me."

"Look," Deanna sighs, sitting down next to her. "Don't worry about it, 'kay? So what if the guys are being assholes. Remember how much crap Adamo and John got when they had to kiss?"

"Deanna, you weren't even _there_."

"No, but from what Mike's told me, everyone teased them about it for weeks. And now no one even cares. Besides, they're all just jealous that we're kissing each other instead of them."

"You're such a dork." Lauren smiles.

"I learned from the best."

\- - - - -

"Paige, I'm in trouble," Alex is saying, and Lauren's heart is beating double, triple time right now as she shifts, uncomfortable, feeling Deanna's gaze settling heavily on her. And then she looks back, and she's quite sure that she _is_ going to throw up from nervousness, because Deanna's eyes are a deep chestnut color and she's looking at Lauren so intensely that it almost hurts.

At then she tips her head ever so slightly and leans in and Lauren does too, and their lips meet somewhere in the middle, and Deanna's lips still feel so soft, even though they must have practiced this kiss about a thousand times by now. But it's still all smooth and slow and sweet, and Lauren's tongue brushes against Deanna's lip, and she can taste the older girl's strawberry lip gloss.

And then a moment later she pulls away, flustered, if only because the script says this is how she acts. Paige, on the outside, is confused, and being Paige, does the worst thing possible in this situation; she runs away. As Lauren closes the door behind her, she collapses against it with a sigh, trying to slow her racing heart. She licks her lips because they sudden feel very dry. And then Phil calls cut, and she straightens, steadying herself, as she pulls open the door and sees Deanna on the bed, grinning.

"How was it, Paigey?" She asks, winking, and Lauren manages a weak smile.

"Not quite as terrifying as I'd expected," she says, and tries to ignore Adamo, Aubrey, and Shane, who are standing together off set, grinning like idiots.

Deanna gets up and stretches, and Lauren notices how nice the light bounces off Deanna's chocolate colored hair, making it look all soft and shiny. Then Deanna's phone rings, and the other girl goes off set to grab it from her backpack, checking the caller ID. She answers it with a smile and a soft hello, and Lauren's feeling just a little bit jealous, because she knows Deanna's talking to her boyfriend, and Lauren kind of wants her all to herself right now.

\- - - - -

"Which one did you like better?" Deanna asks, two weeks later, at lunch.

Lauren takes a sip of her Diet Coke. "Which what?"

"Kiss, dork. Which one did you like best? The one from the first part or the one for the second part?"

"Oh, I don't know," Lauren says, staring at her fries. "Well, the first was passionate, so that was nice. But the second was cute and probably more meaningful. Oh, God, I can't decide," she popped a fry in her mouth, meeting Deanna's eyes across the table. "What about you?"

"Can't decide either," Deanna says. "That's why I was asking you."

Lauren picks up another fry, dipping it in the little container of ketchup beside her tray. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, huh? I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more kissing in the future, anyway."

"Well, you seem to be looking forward to it." Deanna raises an eyebrow, smirking.

"Mm, because you're such an amazing kisser; I just can't wait for our next time together," Lauren teases, kicking Deanna playfully under the table. Deanna giggles and kicks her back.

"Better watch it, Collins," Deanna said, feigning seriousness. "I know where you live."

Lauren mock-gasped, putting a hand to her heart. "And what would you be planning on doing at my house, Miss Casaluce?"

"Evil stuff," Deanna declares, and Lauren giggles.

\- - - - -

Stacey asks, "Is it weird kissing Deanna?"

Lauren raises an eyebrow. "No. Why?"

Stacey shrugs. "I'm just wondering. I mean, like, if you and I had to kiss each other, I feel like that would make me really uncomfortable."

Lauren's trying on a shirt right now, in the dressing room of an American Eagle outlet store, and instead of answering, she studies the pattern on the sleeve, thinking that maybe she'd like the shirt better if it were a lighter tone of blue.

"What's it like?" Stacey presses, and so Lauren feels obliged to answer, if only to get Stacey to quit bugging her about it.

"It's nice, okay?" She says, slightly irritated, tugging off the shirt she'd been trying on. "It's just nice and fun, and kind of soft. And sometimes sweet, but only because Deanna wears this strawberry lip gloss from Victoria's Secret that is just ridiculously good."

She comes out of the dressing room and Stacey's standing there, an odd look on her face.

" _What_?"

"Nothing," Stacey says, in a strange tone, taking the shirt that Lauren hands her. "You just seem like you're really getting into the kissing thing."

Lauren looks away, playing with the cuff on her sleeve. "I'm not."

"Okay," Stacey says, but she doesn't sound convinced. "But - "

"Can we just shut up about the stupid kiss for _five seconds_?"

Stacey backs off. Lauren feels sick.

\- - - - -

It's winter in Toronto, and Lauren's absolutely freezing on set, even though she's wearing a heavy overcoat and scarf. She thinks maybe she's coming down with a cold, because she really hasn't been feeling well all week. Crap. Too bad she has to film half a dozen scenes today; otherwise she'd go to Phil, pleading to get the day off for fear of getting sicker.

Deanna's pouting in her chair, glaring at every one who walks by and is pointedly not looking at Lauren. Lauren watches her from afar, admiring her. Deanna's cute when she's pretending to be tough, and this is just what she's doing now. Lauren sometimes wonders if Deanna just wakes up in character. She imagines Deanna waking up with the strong desire to wear hoop earrings and punch someone in the face, and it makes her grin.

Lauren finally slides into the seat beside Deanna, once they're ready to shoot what Deanna had earlier proclaimed 'the most important scene in the whole episode.' Deanna scowls at her as she sits down, but Lauren shoots her an easy smile, already in character now herself.

And when Deanna storms out and Lauren chases her down, because Paige is never one to let things go, Lauren can almost feel a sense of dread creeping up on her, even though she knows what's going to happen next, because they've been rehearsing it for the past three days.

Deanna's kiss is rough and quick, and Lauren, like Paige, barely has time to react to it, instead staring at Deanna like an idiot, feeling a little betrayed, because the kiss seemed a bit too quick and a whole lot more urgent than it was supposed to be.

\- - - - -

Lauren's sitting on her bed once again, going over her script, while Deanna slouches on the bean bag chair over in the corner, script also in hand.

"Only one more," Deanna says suddenly, and Lauren looks up.

"What?"

"Just one more kiss," Deanna elaborates, flipping through the script. "And then that's it. Disappointed?"

"Should I be?"

Deanna stretches out, setting her script down on the floor with a sigh. "A whole summer of not being able to kiss me? I think that would disappoint anyone." She winks at Lauren, who scoffs.

"Narcissistic much?" Lauren asks, as Deanna pushes herself up and saunters over to the bed, and sits down next to her. Lauren sets down her script, the corner of the page she was reading carefully folded over so that she could find her place again.

"Oh, I don't think I'm nearly narcissistic _enough_ ," Deanna says quietly, with a smirk. Then, "Want to practice our kiss, lover? It's become sort of a ritual, after all, you and me swapping spit every weekend before rehearsal."

"You're vulgar," Lauren says, and shoves her gently. "And you make it sound like we're having some sort of secret romance."

Deanna raises an eyebrow, her voice dangerously low. "Maybe we are, Collins," she says, and kisses her.

Deanna tastes like the peppermint gum she was chewing earlier, and not like strawberries as usual, because they're not filming right now, and this isn't Paige kissing Alex and swooning over Alex's sweet-flavored lip gloss. They break apart for just a moment, to catch their breaths. Lauren looks at Deanna, who winks and grins, as if assuring her that this doesn't mean anything, because it's just practice for rehearsal and nothing more.

Still, Lauren thinks it's going to be one awfully long break between seasons.


End file.
